Ring-tum Phi: With your hometown being Bath, England, why did you come to the states for college, and why specifically W&L?

Will Bannister: In England when you apply to universities you have to pick what you want to study before you turn in the application. I didn’t know what I wanted to do so I decided to come to a liberal arts school where I could take several years to decide. Also, I wanted to keep playing tennis and British universities don’t have great sporting programs like the U.S. does so it made sense to look in the U.S. W&L was the best school that I got into.

Phi: What do you think your strengths are on the tennis court?

WB: I would say that my strength is my willingness to dig in and fight. I have a good record in winning three setters or coming back from a set down to win. I think that I don’t necessarily overpower people, but I just stick around on the court long enough to play my way into a match.

Phi: What areas are you constantly focusing on improving?

WB: The areas I am looking to improve are that I am always looking to hit a better ball and to play smarter. Over my four years my biggest focus has been playing smart points rather than trying to hit the hardest shot possible. I used to miss quite a lot but now I am more conservative and smarter and play more mature tennis.

Phi: What has driven your four match winning streak in singles:

WB: Out of the four matches we played three ODAC matches, so you essentially expect to win those as long as you play well. I had the good win against Carnegie Melon. Part of that win was that it was my Senior Day and I was down in that match and I felt like I couldn’t go down tamely. That was what allowed me to win that match. I had a bad weekend a couple of weekends ago against Mary Washington where I lost two matches that I would usually expect to win so that inspired me to refocus.

Phi: What has it been like for you switching doubles partners from Jordan (Krasner) to Charlie (Kittridge)?

WB: I have played with Jordan since sophomore year and we had a pretty good record. We were a good team and I enjoyed playing with him. It has been different playing with Charlie and I like playing with Charlie a lot. He is fun to have around on the court and I think he is very talented. When we are both on I think we are a very good team. The switch hasn’t been that difficult other than I would like to win a few more matches with Charlie. We have played some good teams and we had a good win against Mary Washington.

Phi: What do you think has been the highlight of your season so far?

WB: In terms of singles wins I would say my favorite one was definitely against Carnegie Melon. That was probably the highest ranked player that I have played, and I saved a match point and came back and won. That was probably my highlight in terms of singles wins. As a team I would say our win over Swarthmore was pretty good for us. We haven’t beaten them in the four years that I have been here so it was nice to finally put one over them.

Phi: What do you like doing off the court?

WB: I like soccer. I root for Arsenal so I follow them. Other than that I like just hanging out with friends.

Phi: Who would you say is your biggest role model and why?

WB: I would say Andy Murray because he is a British tennis player. My biggest inspiration from him is that he has a lot of pressure being the only good British tennis player and he is going for a record of years without winning a Grand Slam. He has had to play against all of these great players and he has still managed to become the No. 1 player in the world. For a British person he is a big role model for me.

Phi: What would you like to do after you graduate:

WB: I would like to go into consulting.